Gareth Davies

The commitment to invest £28.6 million into Cornish Metals was made by the National Wealth Fund and announced on 28th January 2025. The investment is separate to the £24 million equity investment into Cornish Lithium announced on 23^rd August 2023 by the UKIB

The National Wealth Fund (NWF) is the provider of the Government’s loan for Sizewell C. This enables the project to benefit from the NWF’s operationally independent infrastructure finance expertise.

The NWF will repay the debt provided by HM Treasury following repayments made by Sizewell C to the NWF. The associated profit will be recycled to consumers, helping to keep the impact of Sizewell C on consumers’ bills low.

The government consulted on proposals for reform of landfill tax on 28 April following a call for evidence in 2021. The consultation closed on 28 July, and the government is currently considering responses.

As part of the consultation on Reform of Landfill Tax, the Government has received a wide range of views from stakeholders, including representatives from the construction sector. Reducing the amount of waste material sent to landfill remains a key environmental objective, supporting the transition to a circular economy. The government recently published a 10-year infrastructure strategy that set out the government’s long-term plan for economic, housing and social infrastructure to drive growth.

We will continue to work across government and engage with stakeholders, including the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, to assess the potential impacts on infrastructure projects. This approach will ensure that infrastructure delivery is supported while advancing circular economy objectives.

The government will respond to the consultation in due course.

The government consulted on proposals for reform of landfill tax on 28 April following a call for evidence in 2021. The consultation closed on 28 July, and the government is currently considering responses.

As part of the consultation on Reform of Landfill Tax, the Government has received a wide range of views from stakeholders, including representatives from the construction sector. Reducing the amount of waste material sent to landfill remains a key environmental objective, supporting the transition to a circular economy. The government recently published a 10-year infrastructure strategy that set out the government’s long-term plan for economic, housing and social infrastructure to drive growth.

We will continue to work across government and engage with stakeholders, including the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, to assess the potential impacts on infrastructure projects. This approach will ensure that infrastructure delivery is supported while advancing circular economy objectives.

The government will respond to the consultation in due course.

The government consulted on proposals for reform of landfill tax on 28 April following a call for evidence in 2021. The consultation closed on 28 July, and the government is currently considering responses.

The government is committed to delivering 1.5 million homes over 5 years as set out in the Plan for Change. The government is considering the potential impacts of proposed Landfill Tax reforms on housing delivery and government targets. We are working with the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government to assess these impacts and support the delivery of 1.5 million homes.

The government will respond to the consultation in due course.

The government consulted on proposals for reform of landfill tax on 28 April following a call for evidence in 2021. The consultation closed on 28 July, and the government is currently considering responses.

The government is committed to delivering 1.5 million homes over 5 years as set out in the Plan for Change. The government is considering the potential impacts of proposed Landfill Tax reforms on housing delivery and government targets. We are working with the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government to assess these impacts and support the delivery of 1.5 million homes.

The government will respond to the consultation in due course.

The government consulted on proposals for reform of landfill tax on 28 April following a call for evidence in 2021. The consultation closed on 28 July, and the government is currently considering responses.

The government is committed to delivering 1.5 million homes over 5 years as set out in the Plan for Change. The government is considering the potential impacts of proposed Landfill Tax reforms on housing delivery and government targets. We are working with the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government to assess these impacts and support the delivery of 1.5 million homes.

The government will respond to the consultation in due course.

In line with the Climate Change Act 2008, the Government will respond to the Climate Change Committee’s Seventh Carbon Budget Advice and set the seventh carbon budget in law by 30 June 2026.

The Government will set out policies to support delivery of the seventh carbon budget as soon as reasonably practicable after this.

The Government published Tax Impact and Information Notes (TIINs) assessing the impacts of the 2025/26 and 2026/27 Air Passenger Duty rates:

Air Passenger Duty: rates from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 - GOV.UK

Air Passenger Duty: rates from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 - GOV.UK

The OBR certified costing of the changes includes a behavioural effect to account for the change in flights taken resulting from the change in the tax rates.

In line with the Climate Change Act 2008, the Government will respond to the Climate Change Committee’s Seventh Carbon Budget Advice and set the seventh carbon budget in law by 30 June 2026.

The Government will set out policies to support delivery of the seventh carbon budget as soon as reasonably practicable after this.

The National Wealth Fund remains operationally independent in its day-to-day activities and its investment committees make investment decisions based on the merits of each opportunity. All investments should align with its objectives and investment principles.

As the sole shareholder, it is right that the National Wealth Fund should be responsive to Treasury ministers’ requests to consider investment proposals. In particular, it may consider investments in emerging government priorities that are facing access to finance gaps. However, final decisions will be subject to the National Wealth Fund’s operating framework and investment principles.

The National Wealth Fund (NWF) is at the forefront of investing public money and will work in close partnership with other public financial institutions, including the British Business Bank.

The UK’s public financial institutions each target specific market failures and finance gaps to drive growth. The Government is strengthening strategic coordination across these institutions, including by creating the Strategic Public Investment Forum.

This CEO-level forum will consider how to leverage the institutions’ different expertise to best support investment and collectively identifying opportunities for greater effectiveness and coherence in the landscape.

As the National Wealth Fund delivers on its wider remit with an increased risk appetite, and its portfolio of investments grows, it will require more resources and expertise to manage the increasing number of projects effectively. The risk function is one of several front office teams that will need to expand to deliver on these objectives.

The Government recognises the vital role hospices play in supporting people at the end of life and their families. The Government will provide support for departments and other public sector employers for additional employer National Insurance costs only. Private sector firms or charities including hospices or social care providers that are contracted by central or local Government will not be exempt from these changes. This is the usual approach the Government takes to supporting the public sector with additional employer National Insurance contributions as was the case with the previous Government’s Health and Social Care Levy.

The Government is determined to shift more healthcare into the community and ensure patients and their families receive high-quality, personalised care in the most appropriate setting, and hospices will have a big role to play in that shift.

Integrated Care Boards are responsible for the commissioning of palliative and end of life care services to meet the needs of their local populations; where ICBs provide funding, they will work with hospices to agree funding arrangements through the normal contracting process.

The Government has recently announced that we are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million boost for adult and children’s hospices to ensure they have the best physical environment for care, and £26 million revenue to support children and young people’s hospices. We will set out the details of the funding allocation in due course.

The National Wealth Fund has made financing available for new investment projects in Grangemouth, subject to viable proposals coming forward. This financing will help unlock Grangemouth’s full potential and secure our clean energy future. Any investment made into Grangemouth by the National Wealth Fund would be subject to the investment satisfying the National Wealth Fund’s normal requirements for investable proposals.

The National Wealth Fund considers business cases for investments on a case-by-case basis, supporting proposals that fall within the scope of its mandate and investment principles. An investment made by National Wealth Fund would need to have satisfied its investment principles and internal approval processes.

The National Wealth Fund has delegated authority to make investment decisions, subject to those investments meeting certain conditions agreed with HM Treasury.

The National Wealth Fund is operationally independent and has delegated authority to make investment decisions, subject to those investments meeting certain conditions agreed with HM Treasury. An investment made by the National Wealth Fund would need to have satisfied its investment principles and internal approval processes.

The Chancellor announced at the International Investment Summit on 14^th October 2024 that the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) would be transformed into the National Wealth Fund (NWF), building on UKIB’s expertise and leadership. To empower the NWF to maximise mobilisation of private investment, the Chancellor committed to expanding the suite of financial instruments available to the NWF over time. Legislation enabling the NWF to issue the first of these new instruments, performance guarantees, will be laid for consideration by Parliament in this Financial Year.

The NWF is also collaborating with Government departments on new blended finance solutions which take on additional risk, crowd in private capital and support the most effective and catalytic use of public funds.

The most important constraint on the National Wealth Fund’s risk appetite is its economic capital risk budget, which limits the total risk exposure it can hold. The UK Infrastructure Bank had £22 billion of notional financial capacity and an economic risk capital budget of £4.5 billion. This was set by HM Treasury when UKIB was established. As part of UKIB's transformation into the National Wealth Fund, HM Treasury will agree a larger amount of economic risk capital, the details of which will be published in due course.

The National Wealth Fund (NWF) and formerly the UK Infrastructure Bank, actively engages with various stakeholders to enhance the effectiveness and impact of its deals and local authority advisory services. By collaborating with a variety of stakeholders, the NWF ensures that its initiatives are well-informed and supported. This engagement is done through a variety of methods, including bilateral meetings, publications, consultations, and external events (including those hosted by the NWF). The mission of the NWF requires it to support rather than compete with the market and as such, they seek to engage openly with stakeholders.

More information about the engagement NWF undertakes with its stakeholders is set out on pages 73 to 75 of the Annual Report and Accounts National Wealth Fund Limited Annual report and accounts 2023-2024

The National Wealth Fund (NWF) and formerly the UK Infrastructure Bank, actively engages with various stakeholders to enhance the effectiveness and impact of its deals and local authority advisory services. By collaborating with a variety of stakeholders, the NWF ensures that its initiatives are well-informed and supported. This engagement is done through a variety of methods, including bilateral meetings, publications, consultations, and external events (including those hosted by the NWF). The mission of the NWF requires it to support rather than compete with the market and as such, they seek to engage openly with stakeholders.

More information about the engagement NWF undertakes with its stakeholders is set out on pages 73 to 75 of the Annual Report and Accounts National Wealth Fund Limited Annual report and accounts 2023-2024

A full list of the tax measures announced at Autumn Budget 2024, including when the measures take effect, can be found in the Overview Of Tax Legislation And Rates on the gov.uk website.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) publish tax receipts and National Insurance contributions for the UK each month. This information is publicly available and currently presenting outturn up to January 2025.

The OBR publish forecasts for receipts and public spending in their Economic and Fiscal Outlook. The OBR are due to publish their latest outlook for the economy and public finances on 26 March 2025.

The National Wealth Fund (NWF) are currently revising their risk management framework to reflect changes made from the UK Infrastructure Bank’s strategic objectives, economic capital and risk appetite. A revised version will be published on the NWF website in due course.

The Government is fully committed to the transition to electric vehicles. At Autumn Budget 2024, the Government announced £2.3bn of funding for the automotive sector up to 2030 to support the transition to Zero Emission Vehicles. The Government also announced £120m of funding in 2025-26 to support the purchase of new electric vans via the plug-in vehicle grant and to support the manufacture of wheelchair accessible ZEV vehicles.

The Government also provides favourable taxation rates. At Autumn Budget the Government announced new Company Car Tax rates for 2028-29 and 2029-30 which will maintain generous incentives to support electric vehicle take-up.

More widely, HMG provides a range of measures to support people to transition to Zero Emission Vehicles. For instance, over £200 million for 2025-26 was announced at Budget to accelerate EV chargepoint rollout, including funding to support local authorities to install on-street chargepoints across England.

The Government is committed to ensuring that older people are able to live with the dignity and respect they deserve, and the State Pension is the foundation of state support for older people. The Government is committed to the Triple Lock for the duration of this parliament, and in April 2025, the basic and new State Pension will increase by 4.1%. This means that pensioners on a full new State Pension will get a boost of £470 to their incomes from April this year. Over the course of this Parliament, the yearly amount of the full new State Pension is currently forecast to go up by around £1,900, based on the Office for Budget Responsibility’s latest forecast.

The previous Government made the decision to freeze the income tax Personal Allowance at its current level of £12,570 until April 2028. At our first Budget, we decided not to extend the freeze on personal tax thresholds, meaning they will rise with inflation from April 2028.

The Government published the Corporate Tax Roadmap at Autumn Budget 2024. This Roadmap confirms the major features of the Corporation Tax regime for the duration of this Parliament. The Roadmap reflects the particular importance of Corporation Tax to significant business investment decisions. It also reflects the high appetite for policy stability on Corporation Tax following the considerable changes of approach in recent years.

Raising the revenue required to fund public services and restore economic stability meant the Government has had to take difficult decisions on tax, which is why we asked employers to contribute more. The Government recognises the need to protect the smallest employers which is why we have more than doubled the Employment Allowance to £10,500, meaning more than half of businesses with NICs liabilities either gain or see no change next year. Businesses will still be able to claim employer NICs reliefs including those for under 21s and under 25 apprentices, where eligible.

The National Wealth Fund (NWF) is the UK’s impact investor, mobilising billions of pounds of investment in the UK’s world-leading clean energy and growth industries. The British Business Bank (BBB) continues to be responsible for improving access to finance for SMEs, including new programmes to channel venture investment into the UK’s fastest growing, most innovative companies and closing the scaleup capital gap.

The NWF and the BBB work in close partnership to deliver the government’s industrial strategy in line with their respective mandates, maintaining a coordinated and complementary approach to tackling finance gaps and boosting economic growth. The government will continue to review how these institutions operate and interact with the market, government departments and each other to ensure that they are as effective as possible in mobilising private investment and delivering economic growth.

The Chancellor announced at the International Investment Summit on 14th October 2024 that the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) would be transformed into the National Wealth Fund (NWF), building on UKIB’s expertise and leadership to go further to catalyse more private investment.

Processes relating to the rebranding to the NWF were managed and carried out by the NWF and were conducted within the NWF’s existing departmental budgets.

The Chancellor announced at the International Investment Summit on 14th October 2024 that the UK Infrastructure Bank would be transformed into the National Wealth Fund (NWF), This change took effect on that day. All UKIB staff were retained as part of the NWF.

To realise its ambition to catalyse more private investment and accelerate investable projects coming to market across the UK, the NWF will be expanding its team based at its headquarters in Leeds.

The number of roles at the NWF will be published in the “Staff Report” within the NWF’s Annual Report of Accounts, published following the end of this financial year.

The Chancellor announced at the International Investment Summit on 14th October 2024 that the UK Infrastructure Bank would be transformed into the National Wealth Fund (NWF), This change took effect on that day. All UKIB staff were retained as part of the NWF.

To realise its ambition to catalyse more private investment and accelerate investable projects coming to market across the UK, the NWF will be expanding its team based at its headquarters in Leeds.

The number of roles at the NWF will be published in the “Staff Report” within the NWF’s Annual Report of Accounts, published following the end of this financial year.

The Department holds subscriptions to the following news services:

• Dow Jones Factiva
• Times
• Telegraph
• The Independent
• The Guardian
• The Sun
• Daily Express
• Daily Mail/Mail on Sunday + Daily Mail Plus
• Daily Mirror
• Daily Star
• Financial Times
• PoliticsHome
• Bloomberg Online
• Bloomberg Tax Online
• The Economist
• The Spectator
• New Statesman
• Reuters
• Yorkshire Post
• Press Association Mediapoint
• Cision (press cuttings company)

The government is committed to maintaining an open and constructive dialogue with the oil and gas sector to support our energy security and ensure the sector plays its role in our clean energy ambitions.

In line with this I will chair the next Oil and Gas Fiscal Forum in the first quarter of next year. The date and location of the forum has not yet been confirmed.

The published operational costs represent a high-level cost estimate for the changes required to HMRC IT systems to deliver this policy change which follow a recognised standard methodology. HMRC do not provide detailed costs related to policy changes.

Separately, the revenue impacts of the changes to the rates of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on carried interest from 6 April 2025 are included in the costings published in the main Autumn Budget 2024 document.

The CGT changes are the first step of a reform package that will put the tax treatment of carried interest on a fairer and sustainable footing, while preserving the competitiveness of the UK as a fund management fund. From 6 April 2026, the carried interest tax regime will move fully across to the Income Tax framework; this will be legislated in a future Finance Bill, which the House will have the opportunity to consider.

The Government has published information about the reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief. In addition to the information highlighted in the Answer of 18 November 2024 to Question 13623 on Agriculture: Inheritance Tax, the Chancellor of the Exchequer provided further data in her recent letter to the Chair of the Treasury Select Committee. The letter is available at committees.parliament.uk/publications/45691/documents/226235/default/.

The Government has held meetings with a range of stakeholders, including the Tenant Farmers Association.